Washington — Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is set to appear before senators for the third day of her confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court, after a marathon session on Tuesday in which she defended her time on the federal bench and vowed to rule impartially if confirmed to the high court.
Tuesday’s hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee spanned 13 hours of questioning, with senators grilling Jackson on her judicial philosophy, including on abortion, as well as her past rulings.
“I believe that the Constitution is fixed in its meaning. I believe that it’s appropriate to look at the original intent, the original public meaning of the words when one is trying to assess, because again that’s a limitation on my authority to import my own policy views,” Jackson said while being questioned by Republican Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska.
Jackson, 51, would make history as the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court.
While Democrats generally gave Jackson time to expand on her background on the first day of questioning, Republicans repeatedly pressed her on some of the biggest culture war issues: critical race theory, gender, abortion, increasing the number of justices on the Supreme Court and her representation of Guantanamo Bay detainees.
Jackson also faced a barrage of questions from Republican senators about her sentencing in child pornography cases, a line of questioning previewed by GOP Senator Josh Hawley last week. Jackson stressed that the crimes committed were “horrific” and “horrible,” yet she noted that trial judges assigned these cases must adhere to parameters laid out in federal statutes by Congress.
“In every case, I did my duty to hold the defendants accountable in light of the evidence and the information that was presented to me,” Jackson said. “The evidence in these cases are egregious. The evidence in these cases are among the worst that I have seen, and yet, as Congress directs, judges don’t just calculate the guidelines and stop. Judges have to take into account the personal circumstances of the defendant because that’s a requirement of Congress.”
Jackson also said that Roe v. Wade, the case that made abortion legal, is “settled law.” Under further questioning from Republican Senator John Kennedy, Jackson said that, although she has her own personal religious views on when life begins, she doesn’t know when the equal protection clause begins to apply.
President Biden nominated Jackson last month to replace liberal Justice Stephen Breyer, who, at 83, is the oldest justice on the Supreme Court. Breyer will retire at the end of this term.
